Findings

Findings tells the story of a young woman who still lives in a childlike dream world, although she has long since grown up. In this world, represented by a doll's house, she lives alone, playing with dolls. She casts longing glances at the world outside, at reality. The more her longing grows, the more she begins to grow physically. She literally grows out of her little doll's world and finally becomes too big for the doll's house. After having grown, she can just barely crawl out of the doll's house to finally enter reality in full human size.

She looks back into her old home one last time in human size, but she can no longer connect to the doll's house, all of the doll house's furniture is already lying in disarray and here it becomes clear that the home is already decaying. She looks at everything and then throws a tiny mirror back into the little house. Doesn't she want to look at herself in the mirror? Does the mirror point to her new identity, to a new self?

With Findings, Kristina Schippling presents a profound, touching film that comes without any dialogue at all and in which the music is in the foreground. Quiet moments of loneliness, of being lost, but also beautiful moments of freeing oneself from structures that have become too narrow alternate. A well-crafted film and a special work of art that we can only recommend.

The title "Findings" already suggests this search for identity. Thus, the search for one's own ego is in the foreground. When the old social structures no longer function, what will their place be, one might ask. It is not without reason that the doll's house is chosen here as a metaphor: The role models we have of women in our society are either the girl, the mother or the old woman, often devalued as a witch. Thus, when we think of women, we still think of the clichéd associations that, from the male point of view, roles to women are being assigned according to their usefulness to men. The lover is often reduced to a child, the mother is tied to the house and is supposed to take care of the children and the household. The old woman, who in various matriarchies still played the role of the old wise woman, is devalued in patriarchy. But what identities do women have apart from their roles as childlike lovers or mothers? This is the question the film asks. And interestingly, it does not give an answer, but shows the path of a search for answers.

Several answers seem possible. Women are challenged to work out their own identity and not to take on a prefabricated identity. These new role models can be very different for women. But the search for one's own identity is not easy, as Findings shows us.

First, the young woman tries to make contact. It is striking that the three people on the park bench are wearing the same clothes as her three dolls, with whom she has played before. But where she might still succeed in puppet play, the attempt at contact with others in the real world fails. The woman tries to deal with the others as she does with her dolls. She wants to position them, to determine them. The three people on the park bench are irritated. They refuse to be dominated by the young woman. It becomes clear that although the young woman has all the power in her own little dream world, she now experiences powerlessness in the face of reality. Thus she also experiences a loss of control. She cannot control the other people, cannot give them instructions. They do not do what she wants, so she leaves them and is alone for the time being with the failed encounter.

She balances on curbs, roams park grounds, drinks wine from a bottle. Finally, she sits by a river, holds the empty wine bottle in her hand, tears a page out of her notebook and writes "Where is home?". She makes a message in a bottle and sends it off. The wine bottle is submerged under water. Her face can also be seen under water.

Several allusions show that the young woman is ultimately on the run. Perhaps even fleeing from herself? She finds a snail shell into which she might like to crawl. She metaphorically dives into the river, thus completely submerging herself. Kristina Schippling often uses places and settings as inner metaphorical images in her films. There is the escape into nature, away from society - perhaps also the escape into an addiction, alcohol. It is left open.

In the end, she does return to her little doll's house. It is still there. She takes it with her. Even though she no longer fits in it, it has become precious to the young woman. It is part of her history and perhaps the only home she has ever had. Although unsuitable for her, it is still her home.